Interestingly, during his lifetime, Jesus was criticised for all these exact qualities that we love the Irish for – knowing how to have fun, showing a healthy disrespect for authority, sticking up for the common person, and never backing down from what he thought was right.

Surely, on St Patrick’s Day, the Irish would love to appropriate for themselves Jesus’ description of himself: “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'” (Luke 7:34)

But Jesus didn’t just have a good time for the sake of a good time. He was celebrating the return of those who had wandered. Those who were far away had come back. Those who were “dead to God” were now alive.

For Jesus, that was worth having a good time and sharing a drink for. And, it was also something worth dying for, just to make happen.